System and method for production readiness verification and monitoring

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for production readiness verification and monitoring are disclosed. A set of compliance requirements including one or more required-asset identifiers and a set of minimum deployment requirements for each required-asset identifier is received. Each of the one or more required-asset identifiers are associated with a cloud asset required for deployment of a target application. One or more probing messages are generated to determine an availability of each cloud asset associated with the one or more required-asset identifiers, at least one probing response is received from at least one cloud, and the cloud environment is identified as one of compliant or non-compliant for application deployment. The cloud environment is identified as compliant when each cloud asset meets each of minimum deployment requirements and non-compliant when a cloud asset fails to meet one of the minimum deployment requirements. The target application is deployed when the cloud environment is compliant.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______,Attorney Docket No. 5585 (R3014-06100), filed simultaneously on Jan. 11,2019, which is herein incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates generally to cloud monitoring and, moreparticularly, to application monitoring in a hybrid cloud environment.

BACKGROUND

Prior to deployment of an application, a developer must verify andauthenticate that the cloud environment is capable of supporting theapplication. For example, developers must verify the health of the cloudenvironment, individual clouds with the cloud environment, individualservers within the clouds, and individual instances of supportingapplications and services within each server. Such verification istedious and requires a developer to be knowledgeable about the cloudenvironments requirements for application deployment.

Such issues are enhanced in hybrid cloud environments (e.g., cloudenvironments including both public clouds and private clouds). Thedeployment requirements, structures, permissions, best practices, etc.may be different for public clouds and private clouds and/or amongstpublic clouds and/or private clouds. A developer that wishes to deployan application to a hybrid environment must spend time learning therequirements at each cloud management layer (e.g., environment layer,individual cloud layer, individual server layer, etc.) and ensurecompliance within each cloud at each cloud management layer. Suchverification is time consuming and error prone.

SUMMARY

In various embodiments a system including a computing device isdisclosed. The computing device is configured to receive a set ofcompliance requirements including one or more required-asset identifiersand a set of minimum deployment requirements for each required-assetidentifier. Each of the one or more required-asset identifiers areassociated with a cloud asset required for deployment of a targetapplication. The computing device is further configured to generate oneor more probing messages to determine an availability of each cloudasset associated with the one or more required-asset identifiers withina cloud environment, receive at least one probing response from at leastone cloud within the cloud environment, and identify the cloudenvironment as one of compliant or non-compliant for applicationdeployment. The cloud environment is identified as compliant when eachcloud asset meets the set of minimum deployment requirements andnon-compliant when at least one cloud asset fails to meet at least oneof the set of minimum deployment requirements. The computing devicedeploys the target application to the cloud environment when the cloudenvironment is identified as compliant.

In various embodiments a non-transitory computer readable medium havinginstructions stored thereon is disclosed. The instructions, whenexecuted by a processor cause a device to perform operations includingreceiving a set of compliance requirements including one or morerequired-asset identifiers and a set of minimum deployment requirementsfor each required-asset identifier. Each of the one or morerequired-asset identifiers are associated with a cloud asset requiredfor deployment of a target application. The instructions further causethe device to perform operations including generating one or moreprobing messages to determine an availability of each cloud assetassociated with the one or more required-asset identifiers within acloud environment, receiving at least one probing response from at leastone cloud within the cloud environment, identifying the cloudenvironment as one of compliant or non-compliant for applicationdeployment. The cloud environment is identified as compliant when eachcloud asset meets the set of minimum deployment requirements andnon-compliant when at least one cloud asset fails to meet at least oneof the set of minimum deployment requirements. The instructions furthercause the device to deploy the target application to the cloudenvironment when the cloud environment is identified as compliant.

In various embodiments a method is disclosed. The method includes a stepof receiving a set of compliance requirements including one or morerequired-asset identifiers and a set of minimum deployment requirementsfor each required-asset identifier. Each of the one or morerequired-asset identifiers are associated with a cloud asset requiredfor deployment of a target application. One or more probing messages isgenerated to determine an availability of each cloud asset associatedwith the one or more required-asset identifiers within a cloudenvironment, at least one probing response is received from at least onecloud within the cloud environment, and the cloud environment isidentified as one of compliant or non-compliant for applicationdeployment. The cloud environment is identified as compliant when eachcloud asset meets the set of minimum deployment requirements andnon-compliant when at least one cloud asset fails to meet at least oneof the set of minimum deployment requirements. The target application isdeployed to the cloud environment when the cloud environment isidentified as compliant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages will be more fully disclosed in, or renderedobvious by the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments, which are to be considered together with the accompanyingdrawings wherein like numbers refer to like parts and further wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computer system, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a network configured to provide cloud deployment andmonitoring of cloud-based applications, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of verifying highavailability and disaster recovery compliance, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates various system elements during executing of themethod of verifying high availability and disaster recovery complianceillustrated in FIG. 3, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of extended contentverification in a hybrid cloud environment, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates various system elements during the execution of themethod of extended content verification illustrated in FIG. 5, inaccordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides preferred exemplary embodiment(s) onlyand is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configurationof the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the preferredexemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with anenabling description for implementing a preferred exemplary embodiment.It is understood that various changes can be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope asset forth in the appended claims.

In various embodiments, a set of compliance requirements including oneor more cloud-specific requirements and status information regarding astatus of each of a plurality of clouds within a cloud environment isreceived. The status information includes availability of one or moreservers within each of the plurality of clouds. The status informationfor each of the plurality of clouds is compared to the one or morecloud-specific requirements and the cloud environment is identified aseither compliant or non-compliant. The cloud environment is identifiedas compliant when each of the one or more cloud-specific requirementsare satisfied and non-compliant when at least one of the one or morecloud-specific requirements are not satisfied.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system configured to implement one or moreprocesses, in accordance with some embodiments. The system 2 is arepresentative device and may comprise a processor subsystem 4, aninput/output subsystem 6, a memory subsystem 8, a communicationsinterface 10, and a system bus 12. In some embodiments, one or more thanone of the system 2 components may be combined or omitted such as, forexample, not including an input/output subsystem 6. In some embodiments,the system 2 may comprise other components not combined or comprised inthose shown in FIG. 1. For example, the system 2 may also include, forexample, a power subsystem. In other embodiments, the system 2 mayinclude several instances of the components shown in FIG. 1. Forexample, the system 2 may include multiple memory subsystems 8. For thesake of conciseness and clarity, and not limitation, one of each of thecomponents is shown in FIG. 1.

The processor subsystem 4 may include any processing circuitry operativeto control the operations and performance of the system 2. In variousaspects, the processor subsystem 4 may be implemented as a generalpurpose processor, a chip multiprocessor (CMP), a dedicated processor,an embedded processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a networkprocessor, an input/output (I/O) processor, a media access control (MAC)processor, a radio baseband processor, a co-processor, a microprocessorsuch as a complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, areduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, and/or a verylong instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or other processing device.The processor subsystem 4 also may be implemented by a controller, amicrocontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD),and so forth.

In various aspects, the processor subsystem 4 may be arranged to run anoperating system (OS) and various applications. Examples of an OScomprise, for example, operating systems generally known under the tradename of Apple OS, Microsoft Windows OS, Android OS, Linux OS, and anyother proprietary or open source OS. Examples of applications comprise,for example, network applications, local applications, data input/outputapplications, user interaction applications, etc.

In some embodiments, the system 2 may comprise a system bus 12 thatcouples various system components including the processing subsystem 4,the input/output subsystem 6, and the memory subsystem 8. The system bus12 can be any of several types of bus structure(s) including a memorybus or memory controller, a peripheral bus or external bus, and/or alocal bus using any variety of available bus architectures including,but not limited to, 9-bit bus, Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA),Micro-Channel Architecture (MSA), Extended ISA (EISA), Intelligent DriveElectronics (IDE), VESA Local Bus (VLB), Peripheral ComponentInterconnect Card International Association Bus (PCMCIA), SmallComputers Interface (SCSI) or other proprietary bus, or any custom bussuitable for computing device applications.

In some embodiments, the input/output subsystem 6 may include anysuitable mechanism or component to enable a user to provide input tosystem 2 and the system 2 to provide output to the user. For example,the input/output subsystem 6 may include any suitable input mechanism,including but not limited to, a button, keypad, keyboard, click wheel,touch screen, motion sensor, microphone, camera, etc.

In some embodiments, the input/output subsystem 6 may include a visualperipheral output device for providing a display visible to the user.For example, the visual peripheral output device may include a screensuch as, for example, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen. As anotherexample, the visual peripheral output device may include a movabledisplay or projecting system for providing a display of content on asurface remote from the system 2. In some embodiments, the visualperipheral output device can include a coder/decoder, also known asCodecs, to convert digital media data into analog signals. For example,the visual peripheral output device may include video Codecs, audioCodecs, or any other suitable type of Codec.

The visual peripheral output device may include display drivers,circuitry for driving display drivers, or both. The visual peripheraloutput device may be operative to display content under the direction ofthe processor subsystem 6. For example, the visual peripheral outputdevice may be able to play media playback information, applicationscreens for application implemented on the system 2, informationregarding ongoing communications operations, information regardingincoming communications requests, or device operation screens, to nameonly a few.

In some embodiments, the communications interface 10 may include anysuitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware and softwarethat is capable of coupling the system 2 to one or more networks and/oradditional devices. The communications interface 10 may be arranged tooperate with any suitable technique for controlling information signalsusing a desired set of communications protocols, services or operatingprocedures. The communications interface 10 may comprise the appropriatephysical connectors to connect with a corresponding communicationsmedium, whether wired or wireless.

Vehicles of communication comprise a network. In various aspects, thenetwork may comprise local area networks (LAN) as well as wide areanetworks (WAN) including without limitation Internet, wired channels,wireless channels, communication devices including telephones,computers, wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic channels, andcombinations thereof, including other devices and/or components capableof/associated with communicating data. For example, the communicationenvironments comprise in-body communications, various devices, andvarious modes of communications such as wireless communications, wiredcommunications, and combinations of the same.

Wireless communication modes comprise any mode of communication betweenpoints (e.g., nodes) that utilize, at least in part, wireless technologyincluding various protocols and combinations of protocols associatedwith wireless transmission, data, and devices. The points comprise, forexample, wireless devices such as wireless headsets, audio andmultimedia devices and equipment, such as audio players and multimediaplayers, telephones, including mobile telephones and cordlesstelephones, and computers and computer-related devices and components,such as printers, network-connected machinery, and/or any other suitabledevice or third-party device.

Wired communication modes comprise any mode of communication betweenpoints that utilize wired technology including various protocols andcombinations of protocols associated with wired transmission, data, anddevices. The points comprise, for example, devices such as audio andmultimedia devices and equipment, such as audio players and multimediaplayers, telephones, including mobile telephones and cordlesstelephones, and computers and computer-related devices and components,such as printers, network-connected machinery, and/or any other suitabledevice or third-party device. In various implementations, the wiredcommunication modules may communicate in accordance with a number ofwired protocols. Examples of wired protocols may comprise UniversalSerial Bus (USB) communication, RS-232, RS-422, RS-423, RS-485 serialprotocols, FireWire, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, MIDI, ATA, Serial ATA, PCIExpress, T-1 (and variants), Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)parallel communication, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)communication, or Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) communication,to name only a few examples.

Accordingly, in various aspects, the communications interface 10 maycomprise one or more interfaces such as, for example, a wirelesscommunications interface, a wired communications interface, a networkinterface, a transmit interface, a receive interface, a media interface,a system interface, a component interface, a switching interface, a chipinterface, a controller, and so forth. When implemented by a wirelessdevice or within wireless system, for example, the communicationsinterface 10 may comprise a wireless interface comprising one or moreantennas, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, amplifiers, filters,control logic, and so forth.

In various aspects, the communications interface 10 may provide datacommunications functionality in accordance with a number of protocols.Examples of protocols may comprise various wireless local area network(WLAN) protocols, including the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.xx series of protocols, such as IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n,IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, and so forth. Other examples of wirelessprotocols may comprise various wireless wide area network (WWAN)protocols, such as GSM cellular radiotelephone system protocols withGPRS, CDMA cellular radiotelephone communication systems with 1×RTT,EDGE systems, EV-DO systems, EV-DV systems, HSDPA systems, and so forth.Further examples of wireless protocols may comprise wireless personalarea network (PAN) protocols, such as an Infrared protocol, a protocolfrom the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) series of protocols(e.g., Bluetooth Specification versions 5.0, 6, 7, legacy Bluetoothprotocols, etc.) as well as one or more Bluetooth Profiles, and soforth. Yet another example of wireless protocols may comprise near-fieldcommunication techniques and protocols, such as electro-magneticinduction (EMI) techniques. An example of EMI techniques may comprisepassive or active radio-frequency identification (RFID) protocols anddevices. Other suitable protocols may comprise Ultra Wide Band (UWB),Digital Office (DO), Digital Home, Trusted Platform Module (TPM),ZigBee, and so forth.

In some embodiments, at least one non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium is provided having computer-executable instructionsembodied thereon, wherein, when executed by at least one processor, thecomputer-executable instructions cause the at least one processor toperform embodiments of the methods described herein. Thiscomputer-readable storage medium can be embodied in memory subsystem 8.

In some embodiments, the memory subsystem 8 may comprise anymachine-readable or computer-readable media capable of storing data,including both volatile/non-volatile memory and removable/non-removablememory. The memory subsystem 8 may comprise at least one non-volatilememory unit. The non-volatile memory unit is capable of storing one ormore software programs. The software programs may contain, for example,applications, user data, device data, and/or configuration data, orcombinations therefore, to name only a few. The software programs maycontain instructions executable by the various components of the system2.

In various aspects, the memory subsystem 8 may comprise anymachine-readable or computer-readable media capable of storing data,including both volatile/non-volatile memory and removable/non-removablememory. For example, memory may comprise read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM(DDR-RAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM(PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory (e.g., NOR or NAND flashmemory), content addressable memory (CAM), polymer memory (e.g.,ferroelectric polymer memory), phase-change memory (e.g., ovonicmemory), ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon(SONOS) memory, disk memory (e.g., floppy disk, hard drive, opticaldisk, magnetic disk), or card (e.g., magnetic card, optical card), orany other type of media suitable for storing information.

In one embodiment, the memory subsystem 8 may contain an instructionset, in the form of a file for executing various methods, such asmethods including A/B testing and cache optimization, as describedherein. The instruction set may be stored in any acceptable form ofmachine readable instructions, including source code or variousappropriate programming languages. Some examples of programminglanguages that may be used to store the instruction set comprise, butare not limited to: Java, C, C++, C #, Python, Objective-C, VisualBasic, or .NET programming. In some embodiments a compiler orinterpreter is comprised to convert the instruction set into machineexecutable code for execution by the processing subsystem 4.

FIG. 2 illustrates a network 20 configured to provide cloud deploymentand monitoring of cloud-based applications, in accordance with someembodiments. In some embodiments, the network 20 includes at least onemonitoring system 22 in signal communication with a plurality of publicclouds 24 a, 24 b (collectively public clouds 24) each including aplurality of public cloud servers 26 a, 26 b (collectively public cloudservers 26) and a plurality of private clouds 28 a. 28 b (collectivelyprivate clouds 28) each including a plurality of a private cloud servers30 a, 30 b (collectively private cloud servers 30). Each of the systems22, 26 a, 26 b, 30 a, 30 b can include a system 2 as described abovewith respect to FIG. 1, and similar description is not repeated herein.Although the systems are each illustrated as independent systems, itwill be appreciated that each of the systems may be combined, separated,and/or integrated into one or more additional systems. For example, insome embodiments, the monitoring system 22 and at least one of theprivate cloud servers 30 may be implemented by a shared server or sharednetwork system. Similarly, the public cloud servers 26 may beintegrated, such as in a single networked system or server.

The monitoring system 22 is configured to monitor each of the publicclouds 24 and the private clouds 28 to monitor, review, and correctcompliance of the clouds 24, 28 with one or more applicationrequirements, cloud requirements, and/or network requirements fordeployment of one or more network applications. In some embodiments, themonitoring system 22 is configured to monitor the availability of one ormore services, the distribution of one or more applications, theavailability and/or health of one or more servers, and/or any othersuitable metrics for determining compliance of an application deploymentwith one or more deployment requirements.

In various embodiments, each of the clouds 24, 28 include a plurality ofcloud servers 26, 30 configured to implement one or more applications,services, and/or other functions. For example, each of the cloud servers26, 30 can be configured to implement a plurality of applications andassociated services. Each deployment of an application, service, and/orcloud 24, 28 may include one or more requirements (or rules) for meetingquality control or uptime requirements, such as, for example, highavailability requirements, disaster recovery requirements, and/or otherquality control or uptime requirements. Each of the requirements mayapply to an individual server 26, 30, clouds 24, 28, and/or the entirenetworked environment 20. For example, in some embodiments, privateclouds may include requirements that each application be deployed to atleast two data centers with each data center including at least twoservers each running at least one instance of an application to satisfyhigh availability requirements. As another example, in some embodiments,public clouds may include requirements that each application be deployedto at least two cloud regions with at least three instances in eachregion to satisfy high availability requirements. It will be appreciatedthat any suitable rules can be applied for any suitable quality control,uptime, or other requirements.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method 100 of monitoring andcorrecting cloud compliance requirements, in accordance with someembodiments. FIG. 4 illustrates various system components duringexecution of the method 100, in accordance with some embodiments. Atstep 102, a plurality of compliance requirements 152 are received. Thecompliance requirements 152 can include any suitable requirements, suchas, for example, cloud-specific compliance requirements 154 (e.g., highavailability requirements, disaster recovery requirements, etc.),application-specific compliance requirements 252, and/or any othercompliance requirements. In some embodiments, the cloud-specificcompliance requirements may specify a minimum requirements for generaldeployment of applications to the cloud environment 40 a, such as, forexample, a minimum number of data centers, a minimum number of servers,a minimum number of regions, a minimum number of application instances,a minimum uptime requirement for servers and/or clouds, and/or any othersuitable compliance requirements. Similarly, in some embodiments, theapplication-specific compliance requirements 252 may specify minimumapplication/service requirements for deployment a specific application,such as, for example, availability of support or requiredapplications/services within the cloud environment 40 a.

In some embodiments, the cloud-specific requirements 154 for one or moreprivate clouds are different than the compliance requirements for one ormore public clouds. For example, in some embodiments, the cloud-specificrequirements 154 for a private cloud may include requirements that anyapplication or service be deployed to at least two data centers of theprivate cloud and be deployed to at least two servers or systems withineach data center with at least one deployment per server. In contrast,cloud-specific requirements 154 for a public cloud may includerequirements that any applications or services be deployed to at leastthree geographically diverse regions and include at least twodeployments within each region. Although specific examples ofcloud-specific requirements 154 are discussed herein, it will beappreciated that any suitable cloud-specific requirements 154 can bereceived.

In some embodiments, the application-specific compliance requirements252 are associated with a specific application, service, and/or set ofapplications and services that have been previously deployed and/or areconfigured to be deployed to the cloud environment 40 a (“targetapplication”). For example, in some embodiments, theapplication-specific compliance requirements 252 may includerequirements for additional deployments or instances to satisfyapplication-specific high availability and/or disaster recoveryrequirements. In some embodiments, the application-specific compliancerequirements 252 identify a plurality of support applications/servicesthat are required for deployment of the target application.

At step 104, each cloud 24 a, 28 a within the cloud environment 40 a ispolled or otherwise reviewed to obtain the current status of the cloud24 a, 24 b. For example, in some embodiments, a cloud monitoring system22 is configured to execute a polling process 156 to request informationregarding the status of each public cloud 24 a and/or private cloud 28 amonitored by the monitoring system 22. The requested information caninclude, but is not limited to, the status (e.g., availability) of eachcloud 24 a, 28 a and/or server 26, 30 within each cloud 24 a, 28 a,current software, applications, services, or builds deployed to eachcloud 24 a, 28 a or server 26, 30, the location of each cloud 24 a, 28 aand/or server 26, 30, the uptime/reliability of each cloud 24 a, 28 aand/or server 26, 30, and/or any other suitable health or availabilityinformation. Each cloud 24 a, 28 a may provide deployment information156 a, 156 b to the monitoring system 22 in response to the pollingrequest.

At step 106, the status information received from each respective cloud24 a, 28 a is compared to the compliance requirements 152 to determinewhether the cloud environment 40 a satisfies the compliance requirements152. For example, the monitoring system 22 may determine whether eachindividual cloud 24 a, 28 a satisfies cloud-specific compliancerequirements 154. In some embodiments, and as discussed above, in someembodiments the cloud-specific compliance requirements 154 for a publiccloud 24 a and a private cloud 28 a may be different. The monitoringsystem 22 is configured to review status information from each cloud 24a, 28 a and to determine whether each cloud 24 a, 24 b meets thecompliance requirements 152 applicable to the specific cloud (or cloudtype).

For example, in some embodiments, a cloud environment 40 a includes afirst public cloud 24 a and a first a private cloud 28 a. The monitoringsystem 22 polls each of clouds 24 a, 28 a and/or the servers 26, 30 inthe clouds 24 a, 28 a to obtain a status information for each cloud 24a, 28 a that includes, for example, the current number of availableservers 26, 30, location of each server 26, 30, availability of eachserver 26, 30, and/or any other suitable compliance information. Thecloud status from the public cloud 24 a is compared to a first set ofthe cloud-specific requirements 154 a associated with public clouds (ora subset of public clouds that includes the public cloud 24 a) and thestatus information received from the private cloud 28 a is compared to asecond set of cloud-specific requirements 154 b associated with privateclouds (or a subset of private clouds that includes the private cloud 28a).

In some embodiments, the first set of cloud-specific requirements 154 aspecifies that each public cloud must provide a minimum of two cloudregions with the capability to support three instances of an applicationwithin each region (e.g., three servers each supporting one instance,one server supporting three instances, etc.). If the public cloud 24 aincludes at least two cloud regions each capable of supporting threeinstances of an application, the public cloud 24 a satisfies the firstset of cloud-specific requirements 154 a. Similarly, in someembodiments, the second set of cloud-specific requirements 154 bspecifies that each private cloud must provide a minimum of two datacenters with two servers within each data center and at least oneinstance of an application running on each server. If the private cloud28 a includes at least two available data centers each with at least twoavailable servers capable of supporting one instance of an application,the private cloud 28 a satisfies the second set of cloud-specificrequirements 154 b.

In some embodiments, the cloud-specific requirements 154 include one ormore cross-cloud requirements, such as, for example, a requirements thata cloud environment 40 a include at least one private cloud and at leastone public cloud that each meet the applicable set of cloud-specificrequirements 154 a, 154 b. After verifying compliance of each of theindividual clouds 24 a, 28 a, the monitoring system 22 may review a setof environment-level compliance requirements 156 including cross-cloudrequirements. For example, in some embodiments, the environment-levelcompliance requirements 156 may require that a cloud environment 40 ainclude at least one public cloud 24 a that satisfies the first set ofcompliance requirements 156 a and at least one private cloud 28 a thatsatisfies the second set of compliance requirements 156 b. A cloud-leveloutput indicating compliance/non-compliance with each of thecloud-specific compliance requirements 154 is generated. In someembodiments, the method 100 proceeds to optional step 108.

In some embodiments, the cloud-specific requirements 154 includedeployment order and/or deployment scale requirements. For example, insome embodiments, the cloud-specific requirements may include deploymentnorms such as a deployment order requiring a first cloud to receive acertain number of instances and/or be at a predetermined capacity priorto deploying additional instances to a second cloud.

In some embodiments, the cloud-specific requirements 154 and/or theapplication-specific requirements 252 include one or more of anauto-scale requirement (e.g., requirements that instances be added ontraffic spikes or removed on traffic troughs), auto-repair (e.g.,requirements that instances be repaired upon reaching unhealthy states),auto-replace, auto-comply, and/or other requirements.

At optional step 108, an extended content verification process isexecuted to verify the compliance of applications, services, functions,and/or other required cloud functionality (referred to herein as a“cloud asset”) to the application-specific requirements 252. Theextended content verification process generates an application-leveloutput indicating compliance/non-compliance of each cloud asset with theapplication-specific requirements 252. An embodiment of an extendedcontent verification process 114 a is discussed in greater detail withrespect to FIGS. 5-6. In some embodiments, optional step 108 is omittedand the method proceeds directly to step 110.

At step 110, the cloud-level response generated at step 106 and/or theapplication-level response generated at step 108 is reviewed todetermine whether the cloud environment 40 a is configured fordeployment of an application. The cloud-level response and/or theapplication-level response can include a plurality of flags configuredto indicate whether a specific compliance requirement is satisfied. Thecloud-level response and/or application-level response may include, butare not limited to, an auto repair flag, an auto replace flag, a cloudidentifier, a compute identifier, a data center identifier, a disasterrecovery flag, an extended content verification flag, an extendedcontent verification instance flag, an environment identifier, anenvironment compliance flag, a high-availability flag, adisaster-recovery flag, and/or application/service specific flags. Eachflag may be set by applying one or more cloud-specific requirements 154and/or application-specific requirements 252. The flags are reviewed todetermine if the cloud environment 40 a is configured for deployment ofan application. For example, deployment of an application may require ahigh-availability flag and one or more application specific flags to beset to true (e.g., the cloud environment 40 a complies with theserequirements) while other flags may be set to false (e.g., disasterrecovery flag if disaster recovery is not required for applicationdeployment). If the cloud environment 40 a is compliant, the method 100proceeds to one of step 114-120 as described in greater detail below.Otherwise, the method proceeds to step 112.

At step 112, the cloud environment 40 a is marked as failing to complywith at least one compliance requirement 152. In some embodiments, themonitoring system 22 is configured to identify which compliancerequirement(s) 152 are not met. For example, to continue the aboveexamples, if only a single data center is active within the privatecloud 24 a, the cloud environment 40 a is marked as non-compliant andthe monitoring system 22 identifies the private cloud 24 a, and morespecifically, the lack of a two-data center deployment within theprivate cloud 24 a, as the reason for the non-compliance. Similarly, ifa required cloud asset is not available (e.g., failed the extendedcontent verification process at step 108), the cloud environment 40 a ismarked non-compliant and the monitoring system 22 identifies thespecific cloud-asset as the reason for the non-compliance. If multiplepoints of non-compliance are identified, the monitoring system 22 mayidentify each failure point.

At optional step 114, the monitoring system 22 implements one or moreprocesses to correct the non-compliance of the cloud environment 40 a.For example, if the cloud environment 40 a fails to meet one or morecloud-specific requirements 154, the monitoring system 22 may implementa process to deploy (or access) additional data centers, cloud regions,servers, clouds, etc. to satisfy the cloud-specific requirements 154.Similarly, if a cloud asset is not available, the monitoring system 22may implement an application correction process (as discussed in detailwith respect to FIGS. 5-6) to correct the application-specificnon-compliance. It will be appreciated that the type of action taken bythe monitoring system 22 will be dependent on the non-compliancecondition identified by the monitoring system 22 at step 112.

At optional step 116, the cloud environment 40 a is reviewed to generatean optimal and/or suggested application deployment. For example, in someembodiments, the monitoring system 22 identifies optimal data centers,clouds, servers, etc. for deployment of an application. Optimization maybe based on providing high responsiveness and throughput, low latency,and/or other optimization or performance metrics. The monitoring system22 may identify multiple potential deployments based on optimizationrules, compliance rules, and/or any other applicable optimizationprocesses. In some embodiments, the optimization rules include existingdeployment structure and capacity constraints, specific approveddeployment patterns based on group membership (e.g., specific divisions,groups, employees, etc.), and/or any other suitable optimization rulesto provide optimal utilization of the cloud environment.

At optional step 118, an application is deployed to the cloudenvironment 40 a. Deployment of an application may be limited such thatdeployment occurs only when the cloud environment 40 a is marked assatisfying all compliance requirements 152 at step 110. The deploymentpattern may be based on an optimized deployment pattern determined atstep 116 and/or may be a user specified, default, and/or otherdeployment pattern.

At optional step 120, a snapshot of the compliance status of the cloudenvironment 40 a is generated and stored. For example, in someembodiments, the cloud-level response and/or the application-levelresponse received at steps 104 and 106 is stored in memory of themonitoring system 22 and/or a cloud computer in signal communicationwith the monitoring system 22. In some embodiments, a plurality ofsnapshots may be stored at predetermined intervals and/or on apredetermined schedule to provide a historical view and/or trend of thehealth or availability of an application to provide informationregarding production readiness of an application, cloud environment 40a, and/or other historical information. In some embodiments, thesnapshots are configured to provide a health check and/or review ofdeployed applications and services within the cloud environment 40 a.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method 110 a of extended contentverification, in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 6 illustratesvarious system components during execution of the method 110 a, inaccordance with some embodiments. At step 202, application requirements252 for a specific application are received. The applicationrequirements 252 can include a plurality of identifiers 254 a-254 c eachassociated with an application, service, or other cloud function that isrequired for deployment of the application. In some embodiments, one ormore of the plurality of identifiers 254 a-254 c are associated withapplications/services that are critical for a load balancing deploymentof the target application. The application requirements 252 may bereceived by any suitable system, such as, for example, the monitoringsystem 22.

At step 204, an application level probing process 256 is initiated forthe service associated with each of the plurality of service identifiers254 a-254 c. In some embodiments, the probing process 256 is configuredto generate one or more probing messages for the service associated witheach of the plurality of service identifiers 254 a-254 c. If a responseis received from a service within a predetermined time period, theservice is considered active. If a response is not received from theservice within the predetermine time period, the service is consideredunavailable (e.g., down). The predetermined time period may be anysuitable time period, such as, for example, any time period betweenabout 2 seconds to about 10 seconds. In some embodiments, the probingprocess 256 includes a plurality of sub-steps 206-210 that may beoptionally executed to probe each application identified by theplurality of service identifiers 254 a-254 c.

At step 206, a first level probing message is generated to identifyavailability of an application within the cloud environment. If theapplication is currently reachable on any instance within the cloudenvironment, the probing process 256 will receive a first level responsemessage from the application. The first level probing message identifiesthe general availability at an application level for a specificapplication, service, etc. within the cloud environment.

At step 208, a second level probing message is generated and provided toa specific cloud 24 a, 28 a within the cloud environment 40 a. Thesecond level probing message is configured to test whether traffic tothe selected cloud 24 a, 28 a is being appropriately directed, e.g., isarriving at the application/service within the selected cloud 24 a, 28a. At step 210, a third level probing message is generated and providedto one or more instance of the application/service within a selectedcloud 24 a, 28 a. The third level probing message is configured to testthe selected individual instances to determine whether each instance isreachable/unreachable, healthy/unhealthy, etc.

In some embodiments, an extended content verification process 258 isconfigured to receive probing responses from the application-levelprobing process 256 and verify the availability of anapplication/service. If each level of probing messages receives apredetermined number of valid responses, the application/services aremarked responsive and the method 110 a proceeds to step 214. Forexample, in some embodiments, a single response may be required to afirst level probing message and a second level probing message for anapplication/service to be marked responsive but a response to two ormore third level probing messages may be required. If the predeterminednumber of responses is not received to any one of the probing messages,the application/service is marked unresponsive, and the method 110 aproceeds to optional step 212.

At optional step 212, a deployment correction process 260 is implementedto correct one or more errors identified by the extended contentverification process 258. For example, in some embodiments, if anapplication/service was marked unresponsive at step 206, the deploymentcorrection process 260 may initiate an application/service deploymentprocess to re-deploy the unresponsive application/service to the cloudenvironment 40 a. Similarly, if an application/service was markedunresponsive at step 208, the correction process 260 may initiate aload-balancing process to redistribute a load within a specific cloud 24a, 28 b. As yet another example, if an application/service was markedunresponsive at step 210, the correction process 260 may deploy one ormore additional instances of the application/service within the selectedcloud 24 a, 28 a. It will be appreciated that the corrective actionstaken at step 212 may be any suitable actions to correct the deficiencyidentified during the probing process 256. After implementing thecorrection process 260, the method 110 a may return to step 204 tore-execute the probing process 256 to verify availability/health of theapplication/service.

At step 214, an output indicating whether the application requirements252 are satisfied is generated. In some embodiments, the output is usedin additional steps of the method 100 as discussed in detail above. Forexample, in some embodiments, the method 100 deploys an application atstep 118 only if all application requirements 252 are marked assatisfied by the method 110 a. In other embodiments, the output isprovided to a user for review, verification, correction, etc. The outputmay be displayed to a user and/or otherwise communicated to a user.

The foregoing outlines features of several embodiments so that thoseskilled in the art may better understand the aspects of the presentdisclosure. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they mayreadily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifyingother processes and structures for carrying out the same purposes and/orachieving the same advantages of the embodiments introduced herein.Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalentconstructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the presentdisclosure, and that they may make various changes, substitutions, andalterations herein without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent disclosure.

1. A system, comprising: a non-transitory memory having instructionsstored thereon, and a processor configured to read the instructions to:receive a set of compliance requirements including one or morerequired-asset identifiers and a set of minimum deployment requirementsfor each required-asset identifier, wherein each of the one or morerequired-asset identifiers are associated with a cloud asset requiredfor deployment of a target application; generate one or more a firstlevel probing messages to determine an availability of a respectivecloud asset associated with the one or more required-asset identifierswithin a cloud environment; receive at least one first level probingresponse from at least one cloud within the cloud environment; when thefirst level probing response indicates availability of a respectivecloud asset: generate one or more second level probing messages todetermine whether traffic to the at least one cloud is arriving at therespective cloud asset within the at least one cloud; receive at leastone second level probing response from the at least one cloud within thecloud environment; identify the cloud environment as one of compliant ornon-compliant for application deployment, wherein the cloud environmentis identified as compliant when each cloud asset meets the set ofminimum deployment requirements and non-compliant when at least onecloud asset fails to meet at least one of the set of minimum deploymentrequirements; and deploy the target application to the cloud environmentwhen the cloud environment is identified as compliant.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein generating the one or more first level probing messagescomprises generating a probing message configured to identifyavailability of a first cloud asset associated with a first one of theone or more required-asset identifiers on any cloud within the cloudenvironment.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the one ormore first level probing messages comprises generating a plurality ofprobing messages configured to identify a load-balancing status of afirst cloud asset within a selected cloud in the cloud environment. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein generating the one or more second levelprobing messages comprises generating a plurality of probing messagesconfigured to identify a status of one or more specific instances of afirst cloud asset within a selected cloud in the cloud environment. 5.The system of claim 1, wherein the set of minimum deploymentrequirements include a high-availability requirement, a disasterrecovery requirement, or a combination thereof.
 6. The system of claim1, wherein the processor is configured to read the instructions toimplement a correction process to deploy at least one instance of atleast one cloud asset to correct the cloud environment when the cloudenvironment is identified as non-compliant.
 7. The system of claim 1,wherein the set of minimum deployment requirements includes at least oneload-balancing requirement.
 8. A non-transitory computer readable mediumhaving instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, whenexecuted by a processor cause a device to perform operations comprising:receiving a set of compliance requirements including one or morerequired-asset identifiers and a set of minimum deployment requirementsfor each required-asset identifier, wherein each of the one or morerequired-asset identifiers are associated with a cloud asset requiredfor deployment of a target application; generating one or more firstlevel probing messages to determine an availability of a respectivecloud asset associated with the one or more required-asset identifierswithin a cloud environment; receiving at least one first level probingresponse from at least one cloud within the cloud environment; when thefirst level probing response indicates availability of a respectivecloud asset: generating one or more second level probing messages todetermine whether traffic to the at least one cloud is arriving at therespective cloud asset within the at least one cloud; receiving at leastone second level probing response from the at least one cloud within thecloud environment; identifying the cloud environment as one of compliantor non-compliant for application deployment, wherein the cloudenvironment is identified as compliant when each cloud asset meets theset of minimum deployment requirements and non-compliant when at leastone cloud asset fails to meet at least one of the set of minimumdeployment requirements; and deploying the target application to thecloud environment when the cloud environment is identified as compliant.9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, whereingenerating the one or more first level probing messages comprisesgenerating a probing message configured to identify availability of afirst cloud asset associated with a first one of the one or morerequired-asset identifiers on any cloud within the cloud environment.10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, whereingenerating the one or more first level probing messages comprisesgenerating a plurality of probing messages configured to identify aload-balancing status of a first cloud asset within a selected cloud inthe cloud environment.
 11. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 8, wherein generating the one or more second probing messagescomprises generating a plurality of probing messages configured toidentify a status of a one or more specific instances of a first cloudasset within a selected cloud in the cloud environment.
 12. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the set ofminimum deployment requirements include a high-availability requirement,a disaster recovery requirement, or a combination thereof.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the processor, cause the device toperform further operations comprising implementing a correction processto deploy at least one instance of at least one cloud asset to correctthe cloud environment when the cloud environment is identified asnon-compliant.
 14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim8, wherein the set of minimum deployment requirements includes at leastone load-balancing requirement.
 15. A method, comprising: receiving aset of compliance requirements including one or more required-assetidentifiers and a set of minimum deployment requirements for eachrequired-asset identifier, wherein each of the one or morerequired-asset identifiers are associated with a cloud asset requiredfor deployment of a target application; generating one or more firstlevel probing messages to determine an availability of a respectivecloud asset associated with the one or more required-asset identifierswithin a cloud environment; receiving at least one first level probingresponse from at least one cloud within the cloud environment; when thefirst level probing response indicates availability of a respectivecloud asset: generating one or more second level probing messages todetermine whether traffic to the at least one cloud is arriving at therespective cloud asset within the at least one cloud; receiving at leastone second level probing response from the at least one cloud within thecloud environment; identifying the cloud environment as one of compliantor non-compliant for application deployment, wherein the cloudenvironment is identified as compliant when each cloud asset meets theset of minimum deployment requirements and non-compliant when at leastone cloud asset fails to meet at least one of the set of minimumdeployment requirements; and deploying the target application to thecloud environment when the cloud environment is identified as compliant.16. The method of claim 15, wherein generating the one or more firstlevel probing messages comprises generating a probing message configuredto identify availability of a first cloud asset associated with a firstone of the one or more required-asset identifiers on any cloud withinthe cloud environment.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein generatingthe one or more first level probing messages comprises generating aplurality of probing messages configured to identify a load-balancingstatus of a first cloud asset within a selected cloud in the cloudenvironment.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein generating the one ormore second level probing messages comprises generating a plurality ofprobing messages configured to identify a status of a one or morespecific instances of a first cloud asset within a selected cloud in thecloud environment.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein the set ofminimum deployment requirements include a high-availability requirement,a disaster recovery requirement, or a combination thereof.
 20. Themethod of claim 15, comprising implementing a correction process todeploy at least one instance of at least one cloud asset to correct thecloud environment when the cloud environment is identified asnon-compliant.